The Unvegan » Chicken

B is for Blessed

The Unvegan — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:00:09 +0000

Everything that isn't fluorescent in this picture is a winner.

Jury duty, while one of the fundamental principles of the American judicial system, is a pain. You have to miss work, you have to sit around for hours or even days and all you have to show for it at the end of the day is 15 bucks. Yet, in my case I took my jury duty as an opportunity. More specifically, a food opportunity. As opposed to most LA jury duty, which is in downtown LA, mine took my to Inglewood. Although I spent a lot of time in El Segundo in my previous life, it is amazing how different that was from Inglewood.

Location, location, location!

To ensure I would find a good place to eat, I consulted an old coworker of mine who was now working in the Inglewood area. He was quick to recommend a Jamaican place called Blessed, which is right across the street from Hollywood Park in a corner strip mall. I noticed the place had a B rating, which actually made me even more excited about the place, knowing that such a rating would scare away ordinary suburban white people. There was loud reggae music blasting from a stereo in the corner, but nothing that I had ever heard of, so I assumed it was more authentic. Plus, it wasn’t like some ambiance music to give the impression of comfort – no, this stuff was really blasting and would have made it virtually impossible to carry on a conversation had I not been there alone. As it was, everyone else who came into the restaurant were simply picking up orders and not hanging around.

At the ordering counter sat a man with a chef’s outfit on, so I assumed he was doing double duty. I asked which lunch special he recommended and he told me a few things. First, he said if I like spicy food, the jerk chicken is a great choice. Then, he also said that the oxtail was the most popular item. I was torn, but I like spicy and went with the jerk chicken. I waited a few minutes and was brought a fork, napkin and a styrofoam box containing the chicken, a red bean and rice mixture and some sort of cabbage and carrot concoction. I avoided this third thing and set to work on the chicken.

Stop being such a chicken, jerk.

While no knife was given, I quickly found out that none was needed, as this insanely tender chicken should be pulled straight off the bone with a fork. I also found out another thing – Blessed is awesome. As I said when I reviewed Coley’s, I am not exactly knowledgeable when it comes to Jamaican food. I do, however, like to think I am knowledgeable about taste and flavor. With that in mind, Blessed blew Coley’s out of the Caribbean. The jerk sauce was out of this world and absolutely perfect for my spice tolerance. After each bite I could have easily taken a drink, but it wasn’t necessary. And as spicy as it was, the flavor was still powerful and delicious. With some spicy food, your tongue can burn to the extent that everything you eat afterwards tastes spicy, but this was not the case at Blessed. The rice and beans made for a tasty buffer that didn’t really have any sort of special flavor, but just matched up well with the chicken.

In sending me over to Blessed, my old coworker did me a huge favor. Not only did he lead me to some awesome food, but he gave me a bar with which to compare all other Jamaican food I eat. If you ever find yourself in Inglewood, whether for jury duty, Hollywood Park or any other reason, be sure to stop at Blessed. It won’t disappoint.

Coley’s and the Gang

The Unvegan — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:00:01 +0000

Jamaicapanada?

In a display of mercy, a work event of mine ended last week at a little Jamaican restaurant in North Hollywood called Coley’s. As it turned out, one of my bosses had been Jamaican all along, but none of us knew it. Yet, Jamaican boss or not, I had been wanting to check out Coley’s for a long time, as it sat in that weird area of town that seemed just a bit far for walking, but too close to hop in a car for.

In any case, work had decided to spot us some drinks and something called “patties.” A patty is essentially the Jamaican version of an empanada, in that it’s a pocket of dough stuffed with meat. The dough takes on a sort of orange tint and the whole thing is fried up, rather than baked. The dough is flaky and pastry-like which provides for a nice contrast of texture with the minced meat inside. Despite showing up to the patty dispensary late to the game, I managed to get myself a beef one and found it was quite delicious. It was spiced to give a bit of a kick, but also had some other great flavors in there. And even better, I couldn’t find one vegetable inside.

While the beer and patty were nice, they would certainly not be enough to get me through the rest of the day. I decided to fend for myself from their regular menu to make myself a full meal. The waitress told me there was a Jerk Chicken lunch special and I figured there could be no better way to test out Jamaican food.

It's a festival of bread and the rest of my plate!

When that eventually came, the plate of food looked like it had come right out of the Caribbean. In addition to the chicken, the plate was loaded with steamed rice, fried plantains, “festival bread” and steamed veggies. I had neglected to notice the veggies on the menu, so I won’t hold them against Coley’s, but I still wasn’t happy that they had been an option. Anyway, I dug into the chicken and found that unique flavor associated with jerk chicken. In the past, I had only eaten jerk chicken in its dry form, but this was served wet and it kept the chicken incredibly moist and tender. It had a mild kick and slightly smokey taste to go along with it. The festival bread was almost like a donut, in that it was fried and light, but wasn’t sweetened. The plantains were also different from any fried plantains I had ever had. In a contrast to the chicken, these were dry and edible by hand. Usually fried plantains can be really sweet, but these were much more relaxed and made a nice addition to the meal.

So this was pretty much a good experience, except that when the bill came I found that I had been charged for the regular portion of Jerk Chicken and not the lunch special. This was no good, and the woman told me that the regular portion was bigger. As I had eaten everything on my plate that didn’t start with v and end with egetable, I wasn’t in a position to complain, but I was still annoyed at paying an extra couple of bucks. I know things were a bit crazy with the sheer number of people there, but my order still should have been correct. If only it had been wrong in a more obvious way that I would have known when it arrived.

Alas, I still recommend Coley’s. I’m not exactly a Jamaican expert, but I can tell a good meal from a bad one. It may not reflect the cooking you may have grown up with if you are a Jamaican, but it is certainly not bad.

A Night in Province

The Unvegan — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:00:23 +0000

Provincial breads.

And now you may be wondering why an unvegan such as myself would choose to leave sunny Los Angeles for a December weekend foray into the Windy City. With very good reason, in fact, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of my sister’s birth. Yes, it makes me feel old to have a sister so old. But I was delighted at the opportunity to spend a special event with her and a good portion of my family. For the celebration, we headed to a restaurant called Province in downtown Chicago.

Despite the name, this was not a Canadian-themed restaurant as I had hoped. Instead it had a solid Latin American and regular American feel to it. While probably one of the nicest restaurants I had ever been to in Chicago, the prices were still pretty reasonable. A long look at the menu made a few different options pop out, but ultimately I opted for their Chicken as my main course with a bit of Tetilla Fondue to start and split with my sister.

Beer + Cheese = a need for more pretzel bread

But before the fondue could come, we were brought out a nice spread of round breads and bread-like crispy things. They were accompanied with a sort of white bean dip, which was quite tasty, but I was not going to fill up on such simpletonian food with fondue on the way. The tetilla fondue consisted of melted tetilla cheese with Three Floyds Beer (out of Indiana) and some pretzel bread for dipping. On top of the fondue was a sprinkling of pico de gallo, which would have ordinarily bothered me, but was acceptable as I was sharing my dish. As for the taste, the fondue itself was pretty stellar. I loved the slight taste of beer and the creamy sharpness of the cheese. The pretzel bread, though, was a bit of a letdown. It seemed to be a bit undercooked and was a bit doughy/moist in the middle. Plus, there wasn’t nearly enough of it and we had to dig into the original bread basket to make proper use of the fondue. But while the pretzel bread was a minor disappointment, the greater importance was the cheese itself, which was fondue-licious.

Death by shallot.

By now you’re probably wondering, “What is this ‘Chicken’ he ordered?” and that is a great question. It wasn’t just any chicken, but chicken topped with honey glaze and mojo-white bbq sauce, with Anson Mills grits forming a nice bed beneath the chicken. On top of that, and unbeknownst to me at the time of ordering, was a cacophony of fried shallots. I wanted nothing to do with these shallots, but fortunately these were fried to such a crisp that they were easy to brush away with a fork. When I got down to the eating, I found myself enjoying a huge, moist breast of chicken. Little of the taste of honey glaze was left, and in its place was a strong smokiness. I enjoyed this smoky flavor, which was also prominent in the grits, but a times it was a bit much. It would have been nice to have some other flavor to offer some more balance, but the chicken was pretty good nonetheless.

Province was a pretty tasty meal, but failed to blow me away. Fortunately, I am told their menu is constantly evolving and for all I know, my chicken no longer graces the pages of their menu and has been replaced with a chicken that will blow your taste buds off your tongue. Restaurants like that are great, and I commend them for being that way. As it were, though, the company at dinner that night was better than anything I could have possibly eaten, and for that I left the restaurant a happy man.

Following Our Driver to Trader Jack’s

The Unvegan — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:00:05 +0000

Prime real estate.

When we first arrived in the Cook Islands, we asked our airport driver where we should go to get a good meal. Hoping to get some sort of local insight, he recommended Trader Jack’s to us. His sentiments agreed with the brief food research we had done before coming to Rarotonga – Trader Jack’s was a must-eat. It took us until day two to get there, but when we got there we found it nicely situated on the shore of the Pacific with a beautiful view of the mountains in the background. And after half a day of hiking those mountains with Pa, it seemed to be just what the doctor ordered.

I guess the view from our table was decent.

Trader Jack’s is not simply a restaurant, though. It also has a bar and a pizza parlor, so when we arrived at 5:30, we grabbed a drink at the bar while waiting for the restaurant section to open at 6:00.

When it opened, our beer waitress told us we should get in as quickly as we can to ensure we got a good table. Good tables here meant by the window, which wasn’t actually a window but an open, glassless space overlooking the ocean. Sure, you could see the ocean from other tables, but these were prime and we snagged the last one.

The menu at Trader Jack’s was chock-full of seafood, but after a sandwich of fresh tuna on Pa’s trek, I was eager to see how Trader Jack’s could handle chicken. I ordered the Roast Chicken, but we started out by sharing an appetizer of cheesy pizza bread.

Quick, how do you say "opa!" in Cook Islands Maori?

And let me be the first to tell you that the pizza bread was amazing. The cheese on top was melted down and nicely browned and had a flavor similar to how I remember saganaki (that Greek cheese that restaurants like to set on fire). Perhaps this was only due to the taste of the browning, but whatever the reason, it was awesome. Under the cheese was a nice layer of herbs and garlic, which were good, but did not overpower the taste of the cheese. Finally, under that layer was delicious, crispy flatbread. It was a great start to the meal.

Yeah, that's pretty much a whole chicken.

But the real king of the meal came with my main course. My roast chicken was served on mash, with creamed rukau, stuffing and herb gravy. Okay, so the menu lied a little bit and stuffing was nowhere to be seen, but they more than made up for it with the size of the chicken and the deliciousness of the mash. And the rukau, for those of you wondering, turned out to be spinach. I avoided this and went to work on the meat and potatoes.

As mentioned before, the chicken was huge, but it also had some great flavor from the gravy. The mash, though, was the highlight. I don’t know the last time I’ve eaten such creamy, buttery mashed potatoes, but I do know that before this meal it had been way too long.

Trader Jack’s was so good, in fact, that it was the only restaurant that merited a return visit during our all-too-short vacation. Sure, the real reason for the return was to meet up with some new friends, but if the food wasn’t good we certainly were ready to drop the friends like a bad habit and try a new place. Good thing this wasn’t the case. And all I will say from that return visit is that if you order pizza and don’t like mayonnaise, be sure to tell your server or you may end up with your weekly intake of condiments on your pizza. It will be pretty, but not so easy to scrape off. But I digress…Trader Jack’s is awesome.

Surfing and Stuffing at Windjammer

The Unvegan — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:00:03 +0000

Yes, there is some chicken buried in there.

Situated on the grounds of the Crown Beach Resort is a nice, large thatch-roofed building with a restaurant inside. The restaurant is called Windjammer and in the town of Arorangi on the island of Rarotonga, the thatch roof fits right in. As with much of the food I would encounter in Rarotonga (which relies heavily upon imported food from New Zealand), eating out doesn’t come cheaply, with main courses hanging out around 30 New Zealand Dollars. Rather than settling on one dish, the girlfriend and I decided to go splitsies on two.

The first was “Oven baked chicken breast filled with feta, basil and avocado mousse served with warmed roasted local pumpkin, fresh beetroot & asparagus finished with an olive and tomato tapenade.” While, I would typically be asking for vegetable substitutes, I kept the dish as is, which is my custom in foreign countries. When it arrived, I was thankful this was a dish I was splitting. The chicken was pretty small compared to its friends on the plate, but it sure was tasty. The chicken itself was perfectly juicy and feta/basil/avocado stuffing had a creamy texture not usually associated with feta and great taste. Fortunately, the taste was not at all overwhelming and maintained a good balance with the chicken. The vegetables were left to fend for themselves with my girlfriend.

Seafood, you have impressed me.

The other dish was “Chefs [sic] special seafood risotto with a selection of fresh sauteed seafood, shell fish then scented with vanilla, citrus and fresh herbs & capped off with a homemade basil dressing.” And it was with this dish that I rapidly fell in love with the seafood of Rarotonga. It was so damn fresh, but it wasn’t just the freshness that did it for me. The sauce it was in was also pretty amazing. I always have a soft spot for vanilla, but would never think to use it with seafood (or any other non-dessert food at that), but Windjammer made it work like a charm. I think it could have used a little more salt to balance out the vanilla, but it is always better to be under-salted than over.

Windjammer was a great introduction to the delicious seafood of Rarotonga and one of the few times in my life where I preferred a dish from the sea over one from the land/air. For anyone staying in the town of Arorangi, Windjammer is not to be missed.

Hop to, Choppe Choppe

The Unvegan — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 16:00:59 +0000

Apples make the world go round.

Despite the insane amount of times I have eaten in downtown Culver City, a few restaurants have still managed to elude me. And I do mean a few. Choppe Choppe is one of these restaurants. Now I can proudly say that I have, in fact, eaten their food, but I can still say that the restaurant has eluded me. Oh, the twists and turns of life when your girlfriend picks up food for you. Now, I may not know the full extent of the menu, so I can’t comment on options, but she sure does know me and picked me out something to fit perfectly into my unvegan diet.

The meal was creatively called Market Chicken, and although I got the sandwich, the unique part of Choppe Choppe is that they have designed a number of menu items that work in a salad, sandwich or wrap. Salad is for the weak veggie-eaters, but the sandwich that she ordered me was beautiful, and I know she ensured that it had no veggies on it before delivering it unto her unvegan. The sandwich was filled with chunks of chicken, bacon, slices of green apple and ranch. Served on ciabatta bread, it wasn’t huge, but it packed a heavy punch.

Now that I’ve had apples on multiple burgers and sandwiches, I am still wondering what their ultimate use is. Apples aren’t exactly the sweetest fruit, so they are typically overwhelmed by strong savory taste. They offer crunch, but not as much as bacon. And they are a kind of neutral flavor, but then so is bread. So after all these tries, I have reached a conclusion: I love apples, but I’d rather see them on the side than in my sandwich. Game over. Will I turn down apples as a topping? No. But I also know that I really don’t need to seek it out.

But I digress, back to the sandwich. The ingredients, including said apples, tasted really fresh and beat the pants out of just about every fast food sandwich I’d ever had. The chicken was juicy and flavorful (both of which are supposedly traits of the Blue Foot Chicken used) and the bacon was crisp, plus there was just enough ranch to keep the sandwich moist without overpowering the flavors. The ciabatta also tasted fresh, had some good firmness and had just enough sponginess to make it easy to bite into and tear away from.

All in all, Choppe Choppe provided a pretty good sandwich. It didn’t blow me away with crazy revolutionary flavors, but it was good, reasonable and worth revisiting for a quick sandwich fix in downtown Culver City.

Getting All Fresh in the Box

The Unvegan — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 16:00:25 +0000

Don't you be getting fresh in my box!

In the search for something light to eat after an afternoon of consuming delicious snacks at work, I found a Japanese place called Fresh in the Box in Culver City. Now let’s be realistic, who doesn’t want to get fresh…in a box? And if I told you I was going to some Asian place called Fresh in the Box, you’d probably think I was in for more than just a bite to eat. Yet, there I found myself at a pretty legit Japanese restaurant.

You might be one of those people who thinks “fresh” translates to vegetables and unfortunately that is usually how people interpret it. Thankfully, Fresh in the Box was not one of these places. In their case it meant organic, free-range and all that fun stuff that can often translate into some really tasty meat. Fresh in the Box covered a good range of Japanese food, from curry to sushi to udon and I decided to go with one of my favorites: Chicken Katsu Curry with brown rice. I also ordered some Melon Soda (aka the nectar of the gods) to accompany what I hoped would be a delicious Japanese delight.

Bonus points for the melon soda, even if it isn't Melon Fanta.

When my chicken arrived, I was surprised to find a pile of fried chicken upon my pile of brown pile. I was perfectly fine with the whole “chicken on top” thing they had going on, but it was the chicken itself that had me concerned. The word “katsu” literally means cutlet and these were no cutlet. Instead, the chicken had been chopped up before being breaded and fried, which gave them a whole different look. Sadly, this gave them a different flavor as well. What happened was that while the breading was crispy and delicious, the interior of the chicken was not as juicy and tender as it would be if it had been fried whole as a cutlet. The curry was pretty good, but lacked some heat. They didn’t have different heat options, but the waitress was nice enough to bring me some chili oil to add some kick to my curry.

Was Fresh in the Box good? Yes, it was. Could it have been better? Also yes. You see, Fresh in the Box seemed to do too much. I loved that they kept strictly to Japanese food and didn’t bring in random Korean or Chinese, but they also tried to cover a whole lot of Japanese cuisine (where was the okonomiyaki?). Unfortunately this left my dish (and my buddy’s udon) leaving a bit to be desired. It’s definitely a good, light meal if you need a Japanese fix, but if you are looking for a specific Japanese dish, you may want to make your way to more of a niche restaurant.

Plundering Paradise Cove

The Unvegan — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:00:52 +0000

Frequented by humans and seagulls alike.

The coastal land of Malibu is populated by celebrities attempting to avoid the real world and regular people who want to avoid the crowds of LA’s more local beaches. It’s also sparsely populated by restaurants that want nothing more than to serve a subpar meal while providing a breathtaking view. Or at least that’s how it usually goes – a great view = decent food. Hoping to avoid that trend, the Danto family brought back memories of high school and college by taking me, their son’s greatest friend of all time, to lunch. The Danto clan had chosen Paradise Cove and I was excited to find out what they had to offer.

Yargh, me wants to plunder yer chicken.

Parking at Paradise Cove was the first hurdle we had to jump. At $3 for 4 hours with validation, this was quite literally the only parking available that didn’t risk ticketing. But as far as city parking goes, this was a small price to pay. The next hurdle was getting seated, and although we had a reservation, we still had to wait a good 20 minutes to be seated. This was a poor show, but at least there was a nice beach and pier to visit outside while we waited. Well, sort of. Let it be known that if you are going to Malibu to avoid the crowds of LA beaches, Paradise Cove is not for you. But, if you are not lazy, a 5-10 minute walk past the restaurant takes you some pretty empty patches of beach.

Check out this giant rib thing while you wait.

Enough about beach, let’s get back to the food, because after our wait we were finally seated and could check out the menu. Disappointingly, I found myself staring at a menu dominated by seafood. I endorse seafood as consumption of animal, but I really don’t care for the stuff. Fortunately, seafood places usually like to offer some basic chicken or beef dishes and Paradise Cove was no different. I located a BBQ Chicken Breast Sandwich and decided to make it my own. It came with lettuce, tomato, onion and mayonnaise, but I ordered mine plain. Similar to seafood, I support the existence of mayonnaise, but have little need for it (especially when I have BBQ sauce to keep my sandwich moist). It also came with a choice of cole slaw or “golden french fries” and I chose the fries.

You've pickled me for the last time, Paradise Cove.

When the sandwich arrived, I was appalled to find that a spear of a pickle had taken up residence upon my plate. I whisked it away while wondering what kind of a person would order a plain sandwich, but still want a pickle spear. Clearly a crazy person, and I am not one of those. I put the bun together and got to eating. What a found was a pretty good sandwich. The chicken was tender, moist and well-grilled, while the BBQ sauce had some nice sweet and tangy flavor to it. I was glad they hadn’t just busted out some KC Masterpiece and had opted for something a bit unique. The toasted bun went well with the sandwich, but one of my first bites was tainted with the vile concoction known as pickle juice. It was only one bite, but it was one to remember. So in the end I found it to be just a good sandwich at a place with a stellar view.

Fries, you have saved my meal.

Those golden fries, however, were just as stellar as the view. With the girth of fast food fries, these suckers had been fried to the perfect degree of crispiness. And they managed to maintain a chewy center all the while. Pretty amazing.

And to wash it all down, Irwin spotted a chocolate cake he wanted us all to take part in. I usually have no need for chocolate cake or really any dessert, but I would not let the Danto family down on this one. When the massive slice of cake arrived, I happily munched on a couple of bites while letting the rest of the crew take down the lion’s share.

Finally, a cake to destroy me.

So would I recommend Paradise Cove for visitors to Malibu? Yes and no. Yes, it is a cool place to check out. The sandwich was not bad and the beach was pretty sweet. Plus, if you like seafood, the fish eaters at the table were both quite happy with their orders. One was the opah fish and the other was clam chowder with a sandwich quite literally dipped in it. I, though, probably wouldn’t return to Paradise Cove. I’m glad I got to try it, but there are plenty more restaurants with beaches in the sea of Malibu and I am eager to test them all out first.

Compunding Words at MexiKosher

The Unvegan — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:00:30 +0000

Fun with puns!

Who doesn’t love a good pun? Or even better, who doesn’t love an awesome compound word. Combining giant and enormous gave us ginormous. Combining lion and tiger gave us liger. And combining terrible and institution gave us Ohio State University (yes, I know that is technically three words, but I stand by it). Now joining the ever-growing list of compound words is a restaurant named MexiKosher in (surprisingly) Pico-Robertson. I love a good compound word as much as the next guy, but could this new Kosher Mexican restaurant make a happy unvegan? I intended to find out.

The set up of the place is pretty awkward and we we walked in we had no idea where to order or who to order from. Eventually, we found our way to someone willing to help us out. It seemed they were trying to do things the Chipotle way, without pork or cheese, but still hadn’t gotten the organizational efficiency together.

Of course, as an American, I lamented the lack of cheese. Jew or not, I expect cheese on my Mexican food. To those who know true Mexican food, however, the lack of cheese should not have been surprising. Few Mexican dishes actually involve cheese, so I was still excited. What didn’t excite me, though, was the price. The cheapest meat offered clocked in at 10.99 for a dish.

Just like bubbe used to make.

I chose one of these 10.99 dishes, the grilled chicken tacos. This came with three tacos and my selection of toppings, which I simply limited to guacamole (an extra 75 cents) and cilantro. They were incredibly generous with the guac and I ended up with guacamole tacos with a bit of meat in each. I also got some beans and rice in my family picnic-style divided plate. Then, at check out, we discovered something amazing. Checking in on Facebook resulted in a 20% discount. Now I don’t do that Facebook check-in stuff to remain incognito (just don’t ask me about foursquare), but my buddy checked in and we piggybacked his discount.

That's what I call a salsa bar.

We snagged a table and I went to work devouring the tacos. What I found was pretty delicious. These weren’t some sort of Jewish fusion, but simply tacos prepared with delicious Kosher meat. The chicken was moist, with a hint of citrusy goodness, and then there were the crazy sauces offered. These sat near the register in condiment bottles, keeping the place unique compared to your ordinary Mexican salsa bars. These bottles changed the game in two ways: 1) No more accidentally mixing salsas with an unsteady ladle and 2) they could be easily shaken up to ensure even distribution of flavor. I tried a few of them and found each to be pretty tasty and creative. The Chipotle Marmalade and Serrano Aioli were definitely my two favorites.

Yet, as delicious as this all was, I realized that I couldn’t justify the price of Kosher. Not when I could walk down the street or stroll up to a taco truck and get a similarly tasty Mexican meal for half the price.

Mexikosher is certainly a good addition to Pico-Robertson. For those who keep Kosher, it certainly provides the necessary taste. But for the treif in this world, MexiKosher is probably only worth a dabble.

Picturesque at Picca Cantina

The Unvegan — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:00:47 +0000

Peruvian empanadas?

Not knowing what I was in for, and being led to believe that I was heading out for a night of cheap cocktails and free food, I headed to Picca Cantina on Pico. Unfortunately, although I had been promised free food, a miscommunication led to food being regularly priced. But this regularly-priced food still looked quite good and the bartender gave us our first round of drinks for free to apologize for the confusion. The menu consisted of some great-looking Peruvian dishes with a bit of a tapas flair. I ordered myself a Cusquena beer and then we got busy with ordering food.

We started off with their Empanada Trio. One beef, one chicken and one most hated eggplant. It also came with an unnecessary salad. Yes, I know empanadas are more of a Chilean and Argentinean dish, but if Thai places can serve orange chicken, I supposed Picca could take some artistic liberties with the continent of South America. They arrived pretty quickly and looked virtually indistinguishable from one another. To figure out which was which, we had to cut them open and see them from the inside. Since I was eating with my pals, Jonesy and DKoll, the cutting apart did not get in the way of our enjoyment. I tried all three because I had told my eating companions that I will try anything once. Yes, even the eggplant. Which was bad by the way. The other two were pretty good, but the seasonings didn’t exactly blow me away. Notably, though, the dough was flaky and almost pastry-like. While these weren’t bad by any means, I think empanadas are just better when they are kept as simple, delicious street food.

Who doesn't drink sea urchin shooters?

Although Picca didn’t have exotic Peruvian food like guinea pig or alpaca, they did have some other truly unique flavors. One of these was called Tres Leches de Tigre. Of course, this means three tiger milks, but in actuality there were no tigers invoved. In place of tiger’s milk, this was three different shooters – one with rocoto (a type of chili pepper), one with aji amarillo (another type of chili pepper) and the other with sea urchin. Yes, sea urchin. These were each filled with incredibly complex and strange flavors. The rocoto flavor even had a quail egg in it! My favorite was the aji amarillo, which had a really salty flavor, but a healthy hint of ginger to offer and interesting balance. While the first sip of each of these were a shock of taste, after a couple sips, they became more familiar and more like something that would be worth ordering again.

Crispy chicken just knows how to win.

Next, we moved on to the real meat of the meal: Chicharron de Pollo. This was described as marinated, crispy chicken with salsa criolla and rocoto sauce. The criolla was essentially pico de gallo, so I brushed it away on my chicken pieces, but the rest of the chicken was just awesome. It has been lightly fried with a thin, crispy batter and was nice and juicy. The rocoto sauce was great for dipping and helped make this an all-around delicious dish.

The egg is deceivingly un-runny.

Finally, we came to the Bisteck a lo Pobre. Yes, the steak of the poor. This consisted of skirt steak, a fried egg, pan-fried banana and chickpeas tacu tacu. Not sure what the tacu tacu was, but perhaps this somehow hinted at rice, which was also served in this bowl of deliciousness. All mixed together, Picca once again delivered some complex and unique flavors. The only downside of this dish was that the egg could have been runnier. As it was, the yolk produced only the slightest amount of liquid. Fortunately, this was overshadowed by the addition of the banana, which truly made the steak of the poor special.

So, when all was said and done, I felt like Picca was a great idea that needed a few little tweaks. The unique flavors that Picca brought to our table told me that this was a place I needed to return to, if only to discover what they could do with all of the other items on their menu that I didn’t get around to tasting.